Thematic axes Global Challenges

"Climate change, health and inequalities" by Marc Fleurbaey

26 September 2018

Marc Fleurbaey, Ph.D. in Economics at the École des Hautes Études in Social Sciences of Paris and Professor at the University of Princeton, offered at Palau Macaya the conference "Climate change, health and inequalities" that linked the two challenges of Re-City that are currently underway, on the one hand, "Combating inequalities" and, on the other, "Facing climate change."

Fleurbaey made a comparison of the global temperature, from 1900 to 2017, showing how that in the last 30 years there has been a dramatic increase in average temperature at the planetary level. Fleurbaey argues that climate change not only has an impact on people's health, but especially punishes societies that are in more vulnerable situations.

Marc Fleurbaey, is part of the economists of climate change. There is a widespread consensus among these economists that global solutions are needed. But, in spite of this, there are different opinions regarding the urgency of the measures and in what should be the reduction of emissions. For Fleurbaey, we should not only focus on ethical parameters, but also on issues such as the importance of economic growth or economic convergence. Its integrated evaluation model, called "Nested Inequalities Climate Economy model" demonstrates the importance of the relationship between climate change and inequalities, between regions and countries.

Another relevant data for climate change policies, according to Fleurbaey, is the increase in population. If present-day developing countries become stronger economies but with a relatively small population, there will be proportionally fewer people who suffer the effects of climate change. On the other hand, if the current developed economies do not experience economic growth and, therefore, the growth of the population is high, then there will be an important number of people that will accentuate the costs of climate change.